Month: July 2016

So, I changed my mind-real shocker, that. I decided that if 50,000 was good enough for me to get to on my way to 75,000, then 50,000 was a good enough goal for NaNoWriMo. I changed my word count goal, and won the next day!

I was running out of things to say, things for my characters to do-simple as that. I didn’t want to continue on with things that weren’t relevant, and just adding a few hundred words here and there to each scene was slowly driving me insane. I spent the most part of an hour staring at one scene, just to write a hundred words. To hell with that. I want what I’m writing to at least be useful.

I’m dying to start over with Chapter 1 and start piecing things together, making it pretty. But I really need to work on my arcs, plots, and subplots. I’ve changed how a few characters act, so I need to give myself something to look at to see that “No, she wouldn’t say something like that!” and not get myself confused. I’m thinking that it will help, but I’m not really sure if it will.

Either way, I’m done with my first draft! I’m so excited right now. This is the first time that I completely finished a first draft-ever.

My NaNo word count right now is at 30,000, so I’ve ended up using a little over 6,000 words that a wrote before the start of July. I didn’t want to, but it was completely necessary. On the plus side, I’ve been writing over my required word count, but only counting up to the 2,420. I’ve gained a little. Either way, I’m getting there.

I’ve got five of my plotted scenes left, but after that I get to write without any guidelines to go by. I’d like to get all of my scenes to at least 500 words (there’s only a few that aren’t), but my end goal is to have all of them level at 1,000 words a piece.

I so freaking excited. Like, seriously beside myself right now. I’m trying to contain some of it, since I’m only a third of the way through, but still, 25,000 words is nothing to laugh at. Granted I did have to steal a few hundred from my prewritten 11,000 words, but I had a good reason to. I went to my best friend’s, baby’s baptism. That’s not my reason, although I did manage to get on my feet long enough to do that. I did the wonderful thing that is pulling a back muscle happen Friday morning. Not my first time, not my fifth time if I’m being honest, so I kind of knew how to handle it. Today was the first day that I wasn’t really hurting, and that’s only been in the last few hours. And while having a messed up back did mean that I didn’t move around a lot, it also meant that I didn’t write as much as I wanted to. The chair that I usually write in is not made to sit in with lower back problems. I managed to sit in it last night for a couple of hours, but it wasn’t comfortable and then my Beagle/Basset Hound (we call her a Bagel) took my seat. The only way to make her move is to pick her up and I just wasn’t going to do that. She can have it.

So far today, I’ve written 1,171 words. Tonight, I’m going to aim at hitting my 2,420 word goal, but my bare minimum is the word goal for the day, which is only another 1,100 words away. Ideal is 3,000, but I just don’t think that’ll happen today.

Well, I managed to work myself until I was ahead-by about seven hundred words, I think. And then it all disappeared in the course of twenty-four hours.

It happens.

I’m going to try and do better, but yesterday was crazy. I wrote until the only words I was down were the ones I’d written to get ahead. I was glad that I managed that. My word count right now is at 14,520. Which is awesome, considering that I’d only written 11,000 words in the whole first part of the year. I’m still hoping that I can keep this up and hit my 75,000 word count goal at the end of the month, but as long as I hit 50,000 I’ll be happy.

I’m also going about this backwards. I’m getting the story of my main character and her two friends, and that’s about all I’m writing. Whenever I get finished, I’m going to add in more side characters, do some arcs to get organized, and beef up my story a little more than it is right now.

I got it! I managed to hit my 2,420 again today, and I’m so excited, especially since I’ve barely had time to write.

Some of you may know, during the week I end up writing at work, and since it’s not really my computer, I just use Word and email myself what I manage to get in. Well, last night after I got home from visiting a friend and her precious newborn, I started transferring my Word writings into Scrivener. Guess what! I’ve got my first three chapters done!!!!!!

I can’t believe it!

And yes, I realize I’m overusing the exclamation points right now, but I don’t care. I finished three chapters. I need to go back a revise and flesh more stuff out and probably rewrite some, but I have a complete three chapters to work with.

It feels amazing, and that’s more than likely most of the reason why I was able to write so much today. Hopefully, I’ll keep up this momentum, if not get ahead just a little.

I’m trying to finish my story, and what better way to do it! My goal is to hit 75,000 words by the end of the month, but if I manage to hit 50,000, I’ll be happy. I have a little over 11,000 stockpiled from my notebooks and I’m trying to not count those. I’ll end up stealing a couple hundred by the time everything is over. It’s inevitable.

But! I didn’t have to today! I’m doing my happy dance right now, which pretty much consists of me wiggling around in my rolling chair at my desk where I work. I’m going to keep going and hopefully get ahead for next week.

Wish me luck!

And good luck to all of you that are working on your own NaNo projects!